Mets Rest Matt Harvey and Get Their Sweep, Too, as Logan Verrett Stands Out

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Mets starter Logan Verrett in the first inning against the Rockies. Verrett made his first career start Sunday, giving Matt Harvey a rest.CreditJustin Edmonds/Getty Images

By Tim Rohan

Aug. 23, 2015

DENVER — Matt Harvey looked comfortable sitting near the top of the Mets’ dugout Sunday, wearing a sweatshirt, with sunglasses perched atop his hat, as he leaned over to get a closer look at Logan Verrett striking out Carlos Gonzalez swinging on a nasty slider.

Harvey could afford to relax. The Mets had given him the day off, skipping his turn to start as part of their plan to limit his innings in his first season back after Tommy John surgery. And Verrett, the rookie who replaced him, was pitching a gem in his first career start — in Coors Field, of all places, a park where the altitude makes the ball jump.

Verrett, 25, showed poise beyond his years, holding the Rockies, who have one the best offenses in baseball, to one run and four hits in eight innings, and set the tone for a 5-1 win that completed a three-game sweep and kept the Mets’ lead at five games in the National League East. Even the Mets’ spot starters are capable of stealing the spotlight, apparently.

“It was kind of funny,” Verrett said. “I joked with Matt the other day — I said: ‘Why is everybody freaking out? Don’t they know I’m a way better pitcher than you are?’ He laughed.”

Verrett approached this start with the same confidence. There were a few moments in which it seemed that the Rockies would humble him the way they had Bartolo Colon and Jon Niese on the two previous days. The first two batters Verrett faced singled, and he looked a tad erratic, an appearance his catcher, Anthony Recker, attributed to his being excited. But Verrett threw a changeup that Gonzalez hit into a double play, and Wilmer Flores made a diving stop against Nolan Arenado to end the inning. Arenado spiked his helmet in disgust.

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The Mets' Curtis Granderson rounding third base on his way to score in the first inning.CreditJustin Edmonds/Getty Images

Perhaps Verrett’s maturity was acquired over the last nine months or so as three organizations passed him around. The Mets left Verrett, a third-round pick of theirs in 2011, off their 40-man roster and lost him to the Baltimore Orioles in the Rule 5 draft in December. The Texas Rangers picked him off waivers in April, and he then returned to the Mets when the Rangers designated him for assignment after he had been with them for about a month.

The Orioles and the Rangers both had incentive to keep Verrett on their major league rosters or risk losing him, and he said Sunday that their coaches had helped him improve a great deal. While the Mets bounced him between their bullpen and the Las Vegas 51s, their Class AAA affiliate, he had been able to pitch on the West Coast, in climates similar to the one he pitched in on Sunday.

After that first inning, Verrett calmed down and repeated his delivery, keeping the ball down and the Rockies guessing. He located his changeup and his fastball on the corners, all while mixing in his slider, his out pitch, when the Rockies least expected it. He finished with eight strikeouts, including four against the Rockies’ Nos. 3, 4, and 5 hitters.

“They were fairly aggressive,” Recker said. “We used it against them.”

Verrett made one real mistake, a changeup that Gonzalez hammered over the center-field wall for a solo home run, teaching Verrett a valuable lesson. “Don’t throw CarGo changeups belt-high down the middle,” Verrett said, smiling, referring to Gonzalez by his nickname.

Verrett looked that much better because his counterpart, Rockies starter David Hale, pitched a messy game. He hit a batter and threw four wild pitches, including two in a row in the second inning, each of them allowing a Met to score from third base.

Again, the Mets got contributions from their entire lineup. Michael Conforto, another rookie, collected three hits and gunned out a runner at third base to end the sixth inning. Recker, the backup catcher, smacked a run-scoring double, and so did Daniel Murphy.

Manager Terry Collins stressed Saturday night that true playoff teams beat the teams they are “supposed to beat.” And the Mets have built their winning record doing just that. Their record is 27-5 against the four worst teams in the National League: the Rockies, the Cincinnati Reds, the Miami Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies, their next opponent. Thirty of their final 39 games are against teams that have losing records.

Hitting at Coors Field helped the Mets’ confidence. Over three games here, they compiled 33 runs, 45 hits and 21 extra-base hits. If that were not enough, after missing four months while undergoing rehabilitation for spinal stenosis, David Wright was set to rejoin the team Monday in Philadelphia, just in time for the Mets’ final playoff push.

All the reports Collins had received on Wright were positive, he said. Wright was moving well, swinging well. He batted .321 in eight rehab games. But Collins made clear that there would be a transitional period. Wright had played his rehab games in Class A, after all.

“It’s the Florida State League,” Collins said, and then he raised his voice for emphasis. “It’s the Florida State League! Nolan Arenado has not had any at-bats in the Florida State League. They hit the ball a little harder here.

“He’s moving fine. He’s in the Florida State League, and he’s playing good, really good. I have no idea what’s going to happen until he steps foot on the field tomorrow, and the grass is this long as opposed to being this long.”

Collins held his index fingers apart to illustrate that the grass in Philadelphia would be much shorter. His point: Wright had not fielded grounders as fast as the ones he would this week.

As for Verrett, it appears as though he will be around for the rest of the season. When he came off the mound after his last out, his teammates converged on him and patted his back, and the small crowd of Mets fans here gave him a standing ovation. Afterward, Collins said Verrett would be a candidate to make another spot start. For now, Collins said he planned to use him out of the bullpen in big spots. This game showed that Verrett could command his stuff well enough to be trusted.

“It’s a really good feeling,” Verrett said. “I’m not going to lie.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D3 of the New York edition with the headline: Mets Rest a Pitcher and Get Their Sweep, Too, as a Rookie Stands Out . Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe